Gavin Stevens is one of Faulkner's favorite characters, and he is elsewhere described as a Harvard graduate with a Ph.D. from Heidelberg who chooses to stay close to home, serving as the County and District Attorney for Yoknapatawpha in several of Faulkner's texts. In this story, he is "only county, not District, attorney" (115), and as in the other stories in Knight's Gambit, he acts as both amateur detective and crusader, helping the Sheriff solve the mysteries of Ellie Flint's death and Joel Flint's identity.